Section six: Congress

On December 7, 1863, when the Thirty-Eighth Congress convened, the
31-year-old James A. Garfield was the second-youngest congressman
in attendance. Garfield received an appointment to the military
affairs committee and an appointment to a special committee investigating
the expansion of the railroad system, but the most controversial
measures of his early congressional career were related to the
reconstruction of the American South. The tide had turned against
the Confederacy with Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg,
and it appeared to be only a matter of time before the South could
rejoin the Union. In 1864, Congress voted to establish a military
government in each Confederate state until a majority of the white
men in that state had taken an oath of allegiance. The following
year, as the war dragged to a close, Garfield and the other congressmen
debated a constitutional amendment that would outlaw slavery. On
January 31, 1865, the amendment passed and became law by the end
of that same year.

Garfield was reelected in 1864 and transferred to the
Ways and Means committee, where he began to use the fiscal knowledge
he had acquired over the years. He helped guide through the Revenue Law
of 1866, which completely revamped the nation's tax system. The
national debt had exploded from thirty million dollars before the
war to over two billion at the end, and Garfield worked with his old
Ohio friend Salmon P. Chase to lower the burden. As treasury secretary,
Chase had introduced a national currency, but the value of the
new money fluctuated greatly during the post-war period. In 1868,
Garfield introduced legislation to set the value of the money and
even out the fluctuations.

On March 6, 1866, Garfield argued the first legal case
of his career–in front of the United States Supreme Court. In Ex
Parte Milligan, one of the most famous cases arising out
of the suspension of habeas corpus by President Abraham Lincoln,
three men had been convicted of treason by the Indiana military
commander and sentenced to hang. The accused argued, however, that
the suspension was invalid, as was their conviction. Garfield argued,
"Hang them if guilty, but hang them according to law; if you hang
them otherwise, you commit murder." Garfield won the case and soon
became in great demand as a lawyer.

In the Fortieth Congress, which convened in 1867, Garfield returned
to the military affairs committee and made the introductory remarks
at the dedication of Arlington National Cemetery the following
year. In 1869, Garfield chaired a special committee on the 1870
census and won a coveted appointment to the House rules committee.
However, Harding's most significant contribution was his dedication
to tying paper money to gold, making a supporter of what was then
called "hard money" supporter. With the election of Union general Ulysses S. Grant as
president, Garfield found a loyal ally in his banking measures.
From 1871 to 1875, Garfield served as chair of the appropriations
committee, Congress's most powerful post, short of speaker. Garfield
also oversaw the decreasing of the national debt and worked to ensure
sound fiscal policies throughout government.

At the time, a growing issue in the United States was
the issue of civil service reform. The federal government was suffering
under the spoils system, wherein politicians rewarded their supporters with
federal jobs. President Grant had been besieged by office seekers
when he assumed his office and had established the first civil
service commission to try and establish some kind of order. As
chair of the appropriations committee, Garfield ensured the commission's
financial survival. In 1873, however, Garfield drew criticism for including
a salary increase for legislators and the president during last-minute
negotiations in the House.

During his time in Congress, Garfield was tied to two
scandals that tarnished his record. One scandal alleged that Garfield
had accepted a bribe to delay a congressional investigation of
Credit Mobilier Company, which had illegally profited off of government contracts.
The other scandal involved accepting fees from a paving company
trying to obtain a contract. In neither case was Garfield ever
proven guilty.